Hate to add on to the mess, especially since this topic is old, but I'm pretty confused. Right now I'm on an E2 but I plan on changing within a couple of months if possible. Both my parents were Korean citizens, but they got their US citizenship before I was born. They never renounced their Korean citizenship, and my name is not on the family register according to my parents. I do plan on going to the Seoul immigration office in Janurary, but can anyone tell me right now if they know if I am eligable for an F4? Also This is what I plan on bringing, tell me if I'm missing anything:
-Visa form
-Family registry (*Should I try to get my dad's side? or my mom's side? or both?*)
-Birth Certificate
-Passport
-2 color photos

Choman10 wrote:

Hello,

Hate to add on to the mess, especially since this topic is old, but I'm pretty confused. Right now I'm on an E2 but I plan on changing within a couple of months if possible. Both my parents were Korean citizens, but they got their US citizenship before I was born. They never renounced their Korean citizenship, and my name is not on the family register according to my parents. I do plan on going to the Seoul immigration office in Janurary, but can anyone tell me right now if they know if I am eligable for an F4? Also This is what I plan on bringing, tell me if I'm missing anything:
-Visa form
-Family registry (*Should I try to get my dad's side? or my mom's side? or both?*)
-Birth Certificate
-Passport
-2 color photos

If you want to apply for an F4 visa, first look at the following web site:

Like me, I think the majority of you fall under the category of "A person whose one side of parents or grandparents who once possessed Korean nationality, who have attained foreign nationalities. ."

I submitted the documents stated on that web site--nothing less and nothing more. Remember that the birth certificate has to be original, but the citizenship certificate(s) CAN be a duplicate.

However, I know there are some immigration clerks who are unwilling to process the application (for whatever reason) and thus lie to you, stating you require more documentation or other. In this case, simply go another day and hope to get a different clerk.

Whether you should get your father's or mother's family registry depends on whose citizenship papers you have access to. If you can a copy of either, then it doesn't matter whose family registry you obtain.

For Canadians, *I think* the long-form birth certificate is required (which contains both of your parents' names, where they were born in Korea, etc.), so get it just to be safe. My parents didn't request the long-form when I was born, so I had to get the Ontario government to send it to me in Korea.

By the way, apply in the city/province you're residing in. Thus, if you live in Busan, go to the Immigration Office there, not the one in Seoul.

hi, i've visited the korean consulate in sydney several times trying to get an f-4 visa and they have told me that I would be ineligible for it because my family had not registered my name at the time of my birth and I told them that my parents were not permanent residents of Australia (at the time of my birth).

In order for me to be eligible for any visa (other than the tourist visa) I would have to serve in the military.

However I've just learnt that my parents actually were permanent residents of Australia at the time of my birth.

My question is, does that change anything?

Both my parents and my grandparents on my mothers side are citizens of Australia. They are living here and have no intention returning to Korea. I was born in 1987 in Australia.

hi, i've visited the korean consulate in sydney several times trying to get an f-4 visa and they have told me that I would be ineligible for it because my family had not registered my name at the time of my birth and I told them that my parents were not permanent residents of Australia (at the time of my birth).

In order for me to be eligible for any visa (other than the tourist visa) I would have to serve in the military.

However I've just learnt that my parents actually were permanent residents of Australia at the time of my birth.

My question is, does that change anything?

Both my parents and my grandparents on my mothers side are citizens of Australia. They are living here and have no intention returning to Korea. I was born in 1987 in Australia.

they're simply giving you a hard time obviously. you are eligible--having your name on the family registry would be a reason NOT to get an F-4 visa because that means you'd have to go the military.

That's hilarious. They're telling you differently from what I was told. I've been to the Korean Consulate in Sydney several times, after a few times and a few calls they sorted out conditions and what papers I needed to present. This took 3-4 months. Started in November-ish and ended up with my F4 in Mid Feb.

Basically what i've gathered up from the months of calling and reading sites and whatnot:
If your name is on the Korean Family Registry and you do not have it removed BEFORE your 18th birthday, you WILL HAVE TO serve in the Korean military if you get any kind of visa other than tourist. Correct me if i'm wrong. Of course this only applies if you're a male.

Australia has visa-free arrangements with S.Korea so you can just rock into Korean immigration with an Australian passport and they'll let you through. They did for me last year when I was visiting.

If your parents were PRs at the time of your birth, you're an Australian Citizen. However your father will need to give up his Korean citizenship before you're able to obtain your F4 visa. My father was an Australian Citizen not just a PR and he obtained it well before when I was born (~3 years). I'm not sure if this will have any bearing on you obtaining an F4 visa. Phone the consulate up first, then rock up and ask in person. You'll also need a copy of your Father's KOREAN birth certificate, if he doesn't have it on hand a direct family member has to obtain it from the Resident Affairs(?) office in Korea. Pain in the butt I know.

They mentioned something about me being born before 1989 so I wouldn't need to serve the army, didn't pay much attention to that since I was born in 1988. I'm assuming it was some law passed but I couldn't find anything about it. Although i'm sure you'll be fine since your name isn't on the Korean Family Registry. Again, ask around.

Finally once you do arrive here you'll need to obtain your ARC. I'm having serious problems with this since my father registered his intent to lose his Korean Citizenship at the same time I handed in my Visa Application; obviously my Visa was approved but their system is so damn slow my Father was still showing up as a citizen in their system hence they wouldn't give me my ARC. I needed another form showing my relationship with my father (DoB, etc) signed from the Korean Consulate in Sydney. I'm currently waiting on that now. Pain in the Butt.

Your situation seems exactly like mine, apart from your parents not having Australian Citizenship at the time of your birth. Once again i'm not sure if this'll impact on anything. Bug them to hell and back. Korean Immigration laws change so much and so often government departments sometimes have no idea what's what.

Anyone have any experience trying to track down a Hojuk for adopted parents. My mother has adoption papers but no registry. I'm planning on coming on an E2 but I might like to get an F4 if I can track the papers down.

Hey, Does anyone know what documents are required to get an ARC once in Korea?

I just submitted my application to get my F4 a couple of days ago at my local consulate, and it looks like it'll all go through. I showed my lineage through my mom, since I still have some family in Korea on my moms side, and it was easier to get a hold of my moms documents. All of my dads side of the family emigrated to Canada before I was born, and My dad also passed away in 2004. As far as I know my dad's side doesn't have any family relations back in Korea. Gramps was basically an orphan, and I don't really know of my Grandma, but few people on dads side have gone back to visit since the early 80s.

When I apply for my ARC, do I need a copy of my Dad's Hojuk, or can I just show my mom's Hojuk? I may need to ask for one of my Uncles (on dad's side) to provide me a notarized 'Power of Attorney' out here in order to get a copy of their Hojuk. I don't actually know if they've kept any of their documents from Korea, so getting even their original citizenship numbers might be a bit tricky.

I'll be in Seoul, so I guess I'll be applying for this in the Seoul Immigration office. If anyone knows about the procedure, can you let me know? I'm looking to head out in a few weeks as soon as my Visa's sorted.

Hi all,
Just got my F-4 visa last week (took a day, well, would have taken less than a day but we got there when it was close to closing) and wanted to share my experience in case it helps anyone else.

I live in Arizona so my mom and I drove down to the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles. My mom was/is my link to the F-4 visa as she was born in Korea and naturalized when she was about 13 (adopted by a family in the US). We were super worried because we had a bit of a complicated situation. Not only was my mom adopted by a family in the US, but before she came here, she was adopted by a different family in Korea. So her name was different on all the docs we had. Her Korean name on her family registry was different from her Korean name on her US Naturalization papers and her english name on the US naturalization papers were different from her current name (married). We decided to go down there anyway to see what we could do.

When we arrived, the first lady was a bit short with us saying that in addition to her family registry, we needed my mom's birth certificate. Yes, even after reading all 11 pages of this thread, I still didn't know these two docs were different. Still not sure I quite understand the difference. Anyways, we were persistent and got to speak to another lady. As a side note, if you are going to the consulate in LA, I recommend being able to speak Korean. I don't speak korean and I guarantee you that if my korean-speaking mother had not accompanied me and done all of the talking, I would not have my visa right now. Yes, the people there do speak english but if you have an iffy situation that you want to explain, you really need to do so in Korean. My mom explained her situation and after lots of talking, all she had to do was fill out a doc to renounce her Korean Citizenship. From me, all they needed was my passport, the visa application with a passport-sized photo, and the $45 fee.

It's a long story to basically confirm what someone said earlier in this thread: though there are technically certain docs that are required, it all depends on the person that helps you. All we ended up needing were the following docs: my mom's family registry and US naturalization papers and my passport, passport-sized photo, visa application and money. Though this worked for me, probably wouldn't recommend it. I was a bit stressed worrying about what would happen.

I also received my F4 visa from the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles back in 2007 and had to submit the exact same documents as madkisso did: my mother's family registry (hojok), mother's US naturalization papers (could have used my father's docs, but obtaining my mother's docs was more convenient), my passport, my original birth certificate, visa application, a passport-sized photo, and $45 fee. I think we also submitted my mom's current US passport and her old Korean passport, but I'm not positive (and I don't even think her old Korean passport is necessary.) I can't recall how long it took to process my visa application the first time, but I reckon it was less than a week.

Finally received my F4 Visa. Since I'm back in the US, I had to go to the embassy in Washington, DC. Here were the things I submitted:
- application
- 1 passport size photo
- my passport
- photocopy of 1st pages of passport
- a (certified?) copy of my father's family registry. (On the remarks under my father's entry it states that he became a US citizen, and later renounced his Korean citizenship, with dates).
- photocopy of my father's US naturalization certificate
- photocopy of my birth certificate
- photocopy of my father's ARC (or whatever a 외국국적동포국내거소신고증 is)
- $45 cash
- prepaid Priority Mail envelope (no f***ing way I was going to drive all the way to the embassy again to pick up my passport)

I went to the embassy a week ago last Friday (28 Oct), and I got my passport in the mail last Thursday (3 Nov). Success, finally.

I submitted my documents for my F4 Visa at the Seoul Immigration Office about a week ago. The one clerk there was a total jerk. He refused to accept my mom's citizenship papers and my dad's passport papers, claiming that mothers are nothing in Korea but fathers are the important ones. This was before I asked him several times why he needed my dad's citizenship papers by saying "I don't know, ask your dad!"

He was also quite smug about how he was the only person I could go to for it at that office, and I watched him turn an older man away as well because he didn't have all the "right papers". I guess I should be glad I wasn't the only one he felt a need to get some sort of power trip over..?

In the end I finally got the Visa but only after he got to play the role of the big powerful man.

I submitted my documents for my F4 Visa at the Seoul Immigration Office about a week ago. The one clerk there was a total jerk. He refused to accept my mom's citizenship papers and my dad's passport papers, claiming that mothers are nothing in Korea but fathers are the important ones. This was before I asked him several times why he needed my dad's citizenship papers by saying "I don't know, ask your dad!"

He was also quite smug about how he was the only person I could go to for it at that office, and I watched him turn an older man away as well because he didn't have all the "right papers". I guess I should be glad I wasn't the only one he felt a need to get some sort of power trip over..?

In the end I finally got the Visa but only after he got to play the role of the big powerful man.